Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #148 Loving to Delve into Worldly Matters and Delving into Talking About People
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You're listening to the Roja, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Rasra Behni.
In our
sessions
on healing hearts
in which we're looking
at Imam Salami's work on the blame worthy
traits of the self
and
how to cure oneself of them.
We looked
in the last session
at
this
at objecting to Allah
Right? As the first blameworthy trait that we
looked at which is trait number 20,
where one seeks guidance from Allah
but objects.
And that's whether one performs
or one makes dua to Allah
or even when one chooses
what is the right thing to do and
then you realize well this is what will
be pleasing to Allah. So you pursue it
but then either explicitly
you feel a sense of objection to Allah
or implicitly.
Right. And we looked at how one approaches
that. That to know that you don't know
what's good for you.
Right? And the key
to contentment
is to accept what Allah sends
you and to respond in the way that
will be pleasing to Him. Right? Contentment is
found
through
embracing
the divine decree and responding
accordingly.
We also looked at not harboring false hopes.
And false hopes
are
hopes
for things
that are unattainable,
or worldly hopes that are excessive.
Because
they turn one away from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And they also entail
a type
of objection
to the almighty.
So that's what we looked at.
And
did we take 22?
So we stopped at
number 22,
which
is loving
to delve into
worldly
matters,
Right?
It says
right?
It from the blameworthy traits of the self
is
it's loving
to
delve into
worldly
means.
And to delve into
talking about people.
And these are 2 of the 2 of
the manifest characteristics
of
of love of worldliness.
Now what cons what's your primary concern? What
do you spend most of your time thinking
about?
The means of this world.
Whereas if you put any kind of balance,
how much does this world matter
in contrast
to the next world,
which is basically next to nothing.
Because it doesn't last.
Whatever you do, you can't make it last.
And the hereafter is eternal.
So
if you are going to invest your limit
time in this life,
then at least a reasonable amount of concern
should be directed towards the means of the
next life in thinking about them, in spending
time on them, thought, concern, focus, attention.
But if all that you enjoy are the
are the means of worldliness,
whether it be
worldly gain or worldly
amusement and pleasure,
then that that is blameworthy. And the type
of foolishness,
a type of worldliness
And likewise,
if
your concern
for
gossip,
for speaking about people,
or what people are speaking about
is far stronger
than
your
concern
for
the great news.
Right?
Which is
revelation,
the Quran,
the guidance of the messenger
The means
to the hereafter.
Then
again,
these these are signs of
worldliness.
Right?
So what does one do?
Is to busy oneself with constant remembrance in
all one states.
So that one may so that
remembrance of Allah
may busy one from
over
concern for the worldly.
And that's the prophetic council.
Let your tongue remain moist with the remembrance
of Allah And this is one of the
hadiths
that the message of Islam revolves around.
Ibn Raja Al Hanbali,
the great
Hanbali jurist
and commentator actually commentator on Sahih al Bukhari,
but commentator on the 40 Na'i. He added
8 hadiths to the 40 Na'i
and then he commented upon it one of
the great masterpieces
of midsize Islamic scholarship,
the compendium
of knowledge and wisdom and it's well translated
into English as well.
He added 8 hadiths to round out the
40 Na'ui into 50 hadiths. Because 40 Na'ui
is 42 hadiths
or so.
The 50th hadith is
the the hadith of Abdullah ibn Busr.
That a man came to the messenger of
Allah and said,
Oh messenger of Allah, the teachings of Islam
are so vast.
So
give us
a great door that we can hold fast
to. Give us an entry entrance point into
the realities of religion.
Right?
An entrance point
to
closeness to Allah.
Right?
And what is a Bab?
A door
is that which is your means to what
is sought.
And the prophet
said,
Keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of
Allah.
Right?
That's the state of the messenger of Allah
Right? So that should busy one from over
concern about
the the the merely worldly
and yeah and people
and immersing oneself
in consideration of what are they up to,
especially when there's no benefit in it. Right?
Oh,
guess what happened?
You know, Magic Johnson and Isaiah Thomas reconciled,
and look what they said. And
who care?
Do you know either one? No. Can they
do anything for you? No. On the day
of judgment, will we be asked about why
why didn't they get along for so long?
No.
Who cares?
Right.
And this is the way of Sayyidina Ibrahim
who said,
when he looked at the
the stars, he said,
I do not love
things that perish.
Right.
And to know that all these things are
not of what concerns you if there's nothing
in it that will last. And how will
it last? If there's a good intention in
it.
Something
either if has no good in it and
no good can result from it through having
good intention, good purpose in it, then leave
it.
So one leaves it.
From the excellence of a person's Islam is
leaving that which does not concern them. It's
very interesting that this
Today just before this class we looked in
a class on holding one's tongue at not
delving into
useless things
and not
engaging in useless conversation in things that don't
benefit.
But worldly speech when accompanied with a good
intention
of maintaining ties of family, maintaining ties of
friendship,
of expressing concern for someone,
of
making someone happy.
You know connected with good intentions, it's no
longer dunya.
It is no longer dunya. The prophet asked
a little child
about what happened to his pet
songbird that had died.
He actually sought him out and wasn't directly
related to him.
Yeah. Yeah.
What oh, little Abu Amir, what did the
little the
little songbird do? It died. You know, he
consoled him and he patted him on the
head regarding it. Imam Shafei spent a whole
night
lying in bed reflecting on the lessons of
this hadith
because
he was staying at the house of Imam
Ahmed ibn Hambal
and the students and and Imam Shefei was
this was a teacher of Imam Ahmed.
So students of Imam
Ahmad were all like, oh, what does our
sheikh our sheikh's sheikh do at night? And
he prayed isha and he went to bed
and he lay there till just before fajr.
And they just did pray 2 rakats and
went to the masjid. Like what kind of
shaykh is this who doesn't pray at night
and this is a shafi.
So they asked him, you know, that they
noticed that from the beginning of the night
till the end of the night he was
just lying in bed. Said because he was
up all night reflecting on this hadith of
Rasulullah
and he deduced over 70
points of fiqh from it.
And a number
of scholars,
he's one of them with a
with actually
a bird name himself, ibn Asur, and many
others.
Even
Hajjar al Askalani mentions,
I think dozens of
of the lessons in his Fathilbari.
Right? So connected with a good intention.
You see so many examples of that in
the sunnah. Right?
But there's a purpose behind it.
The
23rd blameworthy trait of the self
relates to
riya
and suma.
It relates to showing off
and making known one's good deeds.
He says,
From the blameworthy traits of the self of
one's of the ego the lower self the
unrestrained self
is
it's seeking to make its acts of obedience
known to people
and it's liking that they know one's acts
of good
and that
and it's wanting
them to know it.
And adorn oneself with that. So So someone
who may not give in charity normally, but
when you're with people you make sure you
gave to the poor person.
You might walk by the, you know, the
the someone normally, but
you know, you you
you are extra graceful. Why?
Not because you want to do the right
thing, because you want to look good.
Right?
As someone put it, you know, that
the danger of doing good is when you
focus on looking good rather than actually
doing the good.
Right?
That's very dangerous. That's one of the pitfalls
of doing the good.
It's like a friend of mine, he started
a non profit.
And he and he went to major,
charity Canadian charity.
I said, you know what? You only really
need to struggle till you get the funding.
Once you got the funding, you can relax.
And my friend, sincere guy, he wasn't he
wasn't concerned about the funding. He want his
focus was really to try to do something
of of benefit.
So this is very dangerous.
That's showing off
which is what's what's the definition of showing
off of?
Riya?
Seeking any worldly gain with something that is
done for the hereafter, with an act of
obedience,
with an act of worship,
with something of the sunnah.
Doing it for worldly gain. Praise from praise,
recognition,
money. And it's not only about money because
praise
they say praise is priceless.
People would give all that they have for
a little bit of attention.
Right. They talk about 15 minutes of fame.
But now they say, oh, social media is
15 seconds
of fame. Right. You can have 15 seconds
where you go viral,
so you made it. No. You didn't. It's
So how does one treat this? And Imam
Soleimis
is not this is not a theoretical treatise
on defining
the limits of what is showing off etc.
But a practical guide,
right.
The
treatment
for
showing off in acts of obedience and acts
of worship in religious acts
The treatment is to know that
it is not to creation
that you will attain your benefit or your
harm. I mean, it is not from creation
that you will that you will attain any
benefit or any harm.
Why?
Well, because we are people of.
Right?
There's no god but Allah. There's none free
of need of any other whom all are
in absolute need of. What is your reality?
Absolute need for Allah. What is the reality
of everything besides you?
Absolute need to Allah.
That's it's the reality of everything.
Absolute need to Allah.
And that reality that there's no
that
there's no god but Allah.
There's no creator but Allah, which entails
There's no provider about Allah.
There's none who benefits about Allah.
There is none who can harm you about
Allah.
And
this this is
this
is. Right? This is certitude.
Right? It's it's faith.
When it is alive,
it is certitude.
Right.
And it has its manifestations.
So to know that no one no one
possesses benefit or harm except Allah. That's number
1. Number
2,
and one strives
to demand from oneself
sincerity.
Right. Sincerity.
In all one's works.
To remove one from oneself this blameworthy
trait of thinking that anyone can benefit or
harm you which is all which is why
you seek their recognition and praise.
So that's it. When you seek the recognition
and praise of people,
this is a
spiritual sickness.
Right? And it's a faith sickness.
Could you seek the recognition of people because
you think implicitly that they could benefit you
or harm you. And if you think that
they could benefit you or harm you,
you you you you have faith
but that faith has not filled your heart.
Such that its qualities
are manifest in your heart.
That yes you affirm
but you don't realize what its implications
are
in your living consciousness.
That none benefits nor harms but Allah.
One of the early Muslims,
they mentioned
that he
finally
was quite sure that he had attained a
state
of complete trust in Allah when
he was in battle
in jihad.
And he was fighting the enemy and he
overpowered
his enemy.
But then the enemy through treachery knocked him
over
and he thought he'd overpowered any, but the
enemy took out a dagger
that they had, like, tied to his
leg. So he had him in slaughter position.
He had him with his back pinned to
the ground.
His enemy was sitting on him
with the the knife right at his neck.
Says at that moment
I did not have any sense that that
man could harm me in any way whatsoever.
And
fate would have it. Allah's destiny is such
that a stray arrow
flew out of apparently nowhere and struck that
man dead
right on his chest.
And this is the state this is something
like the state of the prophet
who when he was sleeping one day, resting
one one day during the expedition with his
back against a tree, with his sword
hanging from
the branch of the tree.
And this man had crept up to where
the Muslims were resting and he was at
enmity to Allah and his messenger and to
the Muslims.
And he grabbed the sword
and he and the prophet woke up and
he said, who will protect
you from me today?
And the man was holding the sword, the
prophet back is against the tree. He has
no weapon in his hand. The prophet just
looked at the man and said, Allah.
And the man was so odd
that he dropped the sword.
And the prophet
picked up the sword,
but with a smile he said, who will
protect
you from me today?
The Beharul said,
Be of the best of those
who who who grasp a sword.
So prophet said, you're free.
And the man and the man was so
shocked that he that he entered Islam.
So one strives to demand sincerity from oneself
in all one's work to remove this name
worthy trait. Why?
Because Allah Most High
says,
They have not been commanded.
Except
that
they
worship Allah, that they submit
to Allah.
Making sincere
to him,
to Allah
their
religion
or
deen.
Making sincere
to him, to Allah
all
their religious works.
A beam can refer to religion or religious
works.
Upright.
And
the Hanif
is The Hanif,
the upright,
and this is the way of saying Ibrahim
is one who is always
turning to the to the truth,
always turning away from falsehood.
That's a characteristic of the sincere.
They've not been commanded except that they worship
Allah, which is to be in a state
of obedience to Allah.
But that obedience is not sufficient without
a second quality which is
sincerity.
Making sincere
to him
all their religious works.
A deen,
upright.
Meaning
remaining
sincere. So making sincere
to Him
alone
all their religious works.
It says
in upright meaning and remaining
on that characteristic
of making sincere.
Right?
And making sincere
right, to Allah their religion.
Which is why what did Imam Ali say?
Actions are just like
actions are but empty
forms.
Right?
Whose life giving spirit,
is the presence
of the secret of sincerity within them.
Right. So without sincerity actions are dead.
Right. It's an absurdity
to have the appearances
of religion without its reality.
The reality
of religion is sincerity.
Without it, it is mere pretense.
As Sheikh Ahmed Tijani bin Umar said,
it's not deen, it's just decoration.
It's not deen, it's just decoration.
Right?
Shagu'nu says, like, you're all dressed up, but
but nowhere to go.
When Nabiya Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Yaqul
and the prophet
says relating from Allah
mighty and majestic,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
this hadith quitsin,
well established.
Whoever performs any action in which they associate
any other with me,
I am completely free of them
and that action is for the one they
associated with me.
Meaning
that it is not accepted by Allah.
It's not accepted by Allah.
So there's no reward in it, number 1.
But it is
but non acceptance is lost in itself.
But
it is
It is
rejected
by Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala in that
you are committing a sin,
right. So acting with insincerity,
1 you do not gain the reward of
your action so that's loss.
But the action itself is
rejected
and you are punished for it.
So it is very dangerous.
Right?
It is very very dangerous.
It is
one of the destructive
qualities is to have insincerity
in religious works.
Right?
And that applies to our
spiritual works
which is which are you know, that one
has to be very careful to uphold sincerity
in them and to beware of showing off
in our spiritual works, but also has to
do with
any
any public actions one does that are religious.
Activism,
service,
good deeds, etcetera. It has to be very
very careful.
One does not leave the good
out of fear of insincerity
because that too is a type of insincerity.
The early Muslims said that to leave
to do the good for other than God
is showing off, is to act for other
than Allah.
But to leave the good
for the sake of other than Allah is
also
showing off.
Because if you left something good, right. So
for example, you had the thought that you
wanted to give some something in charity to
that poor person
but then you realize that you have your
friend with you and they might notice. So
why did you leave giving doing a good
action?
Other than Allah,
that's insincerity.
And what is sincerity?
Sincerity. That Allah free you of both motives.
Acting further than Allah and leaving action for
other than Allah.
So we ask Allah
for sincerity.
Next session
which will be in the new year
we'll be looking we'll starting by looking at
tama,
which is
avarice,
excessive
wanting.
And they say, an
avarice
or, you know, ex excessively
wanting. But the worldly things, it's an
empty
it's an empty reality and they say and
one of the signs of it being empty
is that all three of its letters are
hollow. The is hollow,
the is hollow
and the
is one big
open hollow
dangler. Right? It's a hollow.
So even
in its appearance, it's a hollow word.
And that's the nature
of just
being avid. I gotta have
it. Right?
Allah Subhanahu Wa'ala uses the example of,
the mirage.
Right? That it looks like something of consequence
but it's not.
And most people lead lives where they
if someone loved
the way most of us
pursue our careers and stuff, we would be
considered a great lover.
Which is why one of the poets said,
For
the like of Layla, of the beloved, should
a person give themselves to.
Right.
Those who believe are more intense in their
love of Allah. We should have a more
intense passion for Allah than
any
any person you see passionate for anything worldly.
We should remind ourselves that Allah deserves more
than that for me. You shouldn't think badly
of them. You should make dua that they
reminded you. To hear that someone so practices,
you know,
like Lionel Messi practices I don't know how
many hours a day.
Allah deserves more than
that because he matters.
Muhammad
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